This annual report highlights a range of their key achievements in 2009, striving to deliver on UNDP’s HOPE agenda, one that helps restore healthy societies after a crisis occurs, provides opportunities for the poorest and most vulnerable, protects communities from violence, and empowers women to meaningfully contribute to their country’s recovery.

This annual report summarizes some of UNDP's main achievements in regards to its work in Crisis Prevention and Recovery worldwide throughout 2010, particularly in the areas of Disaster Risk Reduction, Early Recovery, Conflict Prevention, and Gender Equality. It also provides detailed financial information such as sources of funding and expenditures; and describes our partnerships with key UN and non-UN actors that are crucial to advance our work in such areas.

UNDP-commissioned case studies in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Southern Sudan and Timor-Leste examine whether and how resources were allocated and used in post-conflict reconstruction initiatives to promote gender equality and address women’s needs. They also examine how funding of post-conflict reconstruction related to their own budgets with respect to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

This report provides ideas for how post-conflict countries can build on their existing capacities to assume primary responsibility for their own recovery. It seeks to deepen our understanding of the pivotal role that economic recovery plays in consolidating peace in the fragile aftermath of violent conflict, and reaffirms the critical importance of fostering national capacities and promoting indigenous processes.

Women are often disproportionately affected by conflict, violence and disasters, and their security is often at risk when rule of law breaks down. Their greater vulnerability to poverty threatens their livelihoods, and their voices and interests are often excluded from decision-making in the recovery process.

Recovery from conflict is essential to sustain peace in a country like Nepal going through a historical transition. Experiences from around the world have shown that relapsing into conflict is more likely when peace dividends do not reach the people, especially those who are at the receiving end.